Meet Our Speakers

Called “the Maya Angelou of the Millennial generation,” Azure Antoinette is a commissioned poet, entrepreneur, and millennial and arts education advocate. Azure is the founder and CEO of The Aalchemik Collective, a creative talent incubator which houses Aalchemik: An Apparel Company, a free-trade clothing line centered around positive messaging and the human ability to be both passionate and indecisive; Aalchemik Press, an independent publishing house for poetry and narrative literary work; and EGAMI Collective, a visual art incubator curated to support urban photography, graffiti, muralist and street art.

Azure was included in Forbes’ “100 Most Powerful Women in the World” issue in 2012 and was featured in a special section titled “Women Helping Women.” Her powerful presentations are in high demand, recently being commissioned to write for Maria Shriver, The Gap, Beats by Dr. Dre, Girl Scouts of America, and recently emceed for Lady Gaga’s Born This Way, Emotion Revolution college tour. Azure’s message of following your passion and having the courage to be yourself will be sure to resonate with moms and daughters alike.

JUST ANNOUNCED! Azure will perform at Raising Jane with The Voice, Australia contestant, Emily Rex. Debuting their new duet, Spare Pages.

Monique is most recognized as Taylor Mckessie in Disney’s High School Musical franchise. However, her most significant role came in 2010 when she was appointed the first ever United Nations Youth Champion for the International Year of Youth. With this title, she organized and funded a 6 month global tour to 24 countries and raised awareness about the most pressing issues facing today’s youth.

You may have also seen her guest starring on such shows as Boston Public, Malcolm in the Middle, Veronica Mars, Bones, The Cleveland Show, and Disney’s, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. She also came in 4th place on Dancing with the Stars.

Additionally, Coleman has co-hosted The View, has appeared on such shows as The Nancy Grace Show, Rachel Ray, Good Morning America, Regis and Kelly, The Today Show, Ellen,The Tyra Banks Show, and TRL.

Adding to her list of many achievements, Monique has received two Teen Choice Awards, a Billboard Award, an NAACP Legacy Award, and a Camie for her role in the Hallmark Film,The Reading Room, starring opposite James Earl Jones.

Coleman worked closely on projects with UNFPA, UNICEF, UNESCO, USAID, and UN Foundation as well as many local and youth led organizations.

Coleman is a Peace One Day Ambassador and is committed to promoting peace and tolerance globally.

She is the Founder and CEO of GimmeMo, a multi-platform community that amplifies youth voices and supports organizations who are working to make the world better for young people. Season 1 of The GimmeMo Show is currently available on HULU.

Mo works tirelessly to strike a balance between her work on screen & her passion for impacting the world. Her latest projects include playing Kayla in the TV One sitcom “Here We Go Again” and starring as Lain in New Form Digital’s “The Fourth Door” which can be seen on the Go90 app. She also recently spoke at The UN Foundation’s Girl Up Leadership Summit, wrapped the indie film “Little Star” & is executive producer of a social activist short film “Distortion”.

Nancy Gruver is founder of the groundbreaking international magazine and online community for girls ages 8 and up, New Moon Girls, author of How To Say It® To Girls: Communicating With Your Growing Daughter and blogs on girls’ issues, parenting, and media. She is a national leader in using media to support girls and develop their creative potential. Pioneered by Gruver at New Moon Girl Media, truly collaborative work by girls and adults is an innovative counterbalance to societal pressures which lead many tween and teen girls to abandon their dreams and silence their voices. She’s a regular media guest on parenting girls during their tween and teen years, focusing on mutual respect and learning. www.newmoon.com

Torie Henderson is a life coach, teacher and speaker who is helping parents stay sane in the land of crazy. Torie helps overworked, exhausted Super Moms find peace and fulfillment, at home and at work. She teaches parenting and girls’ leadership workshops; always with a focus on the importance of rest and play. You can learn more at Life Coaching for Parents.

Her most popular class is a sex education class for parents and their preteens, helping open up the lines of communication on embarassing topics in a fun and meaningful way. Learn more and get your free tips and tricks for talking to your kids about sex at Time for the Talk.

Workshop Leader: Pamela Leach, LMFT

Pamela Leach is a Licensed Marriage Family Therapist, LMFT, who specializes in helping people heal from trauma and assists and educates in ways to increase self care. Pamela supports this process by using healing modalities such as EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), Imaginal Nurturing, Essential Oils, Body Talk, Traditional Talk Therapy and other therapeutic modalities. She has extensive experience in working with young woman struggling with low self-esteem, body image issues, and eating disorders and is currently practicing in Trinidad CA.

Karen Atkins specializes in helping people take better care of themselves and find their optimal state of being on all levels. Through an awareness based business, Karen supports lifestyle education and transformation through nourishment, Qi Gong, essential oils, BodyTalk, music, and other therapeutic methods. She has recently been featured on Ted Talks and Good Morning America. Visit her website at: www.karenjatkins.com

Workshop Leader: Stacy Prater-Vigil, ELI-MP

Stacy worked as an educator in youth leadership, community program development and students with special needs, for 20 years before launching her own certified coaching practice, The Life Coach Leverage.

As a professional coach and an energy leadership master practitioner, Stacy uses the Core Energy Coaching Process to help bring out the potential in a client, be it a person, a couple, family, or business. The process is done by emotionally connecting the client’s inner purpose and passion to outer goals and strategies, bringing about extraordinary and sustainable results.

Stacy has worked with Elisa and the SeeJaneDo events since the very first Passion Into Action conference and is honored to share her coaching expertise at the Raising Jane event!

Raising Jane is sure to connect us all to a deeper sense of purpose in a way that is fun, fresh and new. Stacy is co-leading a break-out session and looks forward to introducing the IDEAL IMAGE activity as a way to integrate learning and action, propelling us all into an exciting future!

Janice strives to create financial success for her clients through honoring each person’s unique value system and helping them attain the best financial plan that is tailored for them. Financial plans can change over the course of a lifetime, but the cornerstones of clear communication and long standing trust does not. Under these core values working with Janice allows her clients to continually assess their progress and goals and gives them the ability to adjust their ever-changing financial plan as life evolves.

A Wealth of Experience

Janice joined Baird in 2015, and brings 15 years of industry experience to her clients. Prior to Baird, Janice worked as a Relationship Manager at the Partnervest Financial Group. Her areas of expertise include women’s wealth management regarding financial planning and retirement, comprehensive and holistic intergenerational planning, as well as transitional planning around divorce, death and inheritance. Janice’s financial planning process is based on the values of connecting and understanding. Through this process she integrates her client’s financial vision into a workable strategy. Her practice is built on a cooperative and equality based foundation, offering her professional knowledge and service to her clients.

Janice graduated from The University of Oregon in 1986, and completed a Teacher’s Certification course-Type A at the University of Colorado in Boulder in 1989.

Committed to the Community

Janice has been living in Penn Valley for the past three and a half years. She is a member of the Financial Planning Association for over a decade, and is also a board member for The FPA Nor-Cal Conference in San Francisco and The Center for the Arts in Grass Valley. Her interests include arts, education, skiing, and yoga.

Devyn Cottrell is a dancer/choreographer who has shook it down all over California, including dancing for ODC Jazz-Co, San Francisco, Krucial Element Dance Company and Eveoke Dance Theatre, San Diego and Groov3, Los Angeles. Cottrell is an advocate for Arts in Education and has taught in dance and theatre companies all over California and Colorado. As the founder of Del Corazon Dance Company in Nevada City, who currently tours Northern California performing shows in Nevada County, San Francisco and Oakland, Devyn hopes to facilitate an awareness to the importance of connection and love within our community through dance. Performing from the heart every time we take the stage!

Kara Christensen is a high school senior who is passionate about math and science; especially in the forms of problem solving and organizing. As a New Moon sister-to-sister mentor, Kara inspires preteens to share her love of math and science. This summer, Kara is the California Girls’ State Delegate for Placer High School. In her spare time, she enjoys teaching gymnastics, making bracelets, reading and traveling and hopes to study engineering in college.

Expo Participant: Rachel Berry, Sierra Botanica

Sierra Botanica was created in 2009, as a line of fresh, local, and organic herbal skin and body care. As I created these hand-crafted products from my garden and local farms, I also began offering herbal classes in my community. This is when I realized that I couldn’t bottle my experience with the herbs in a line of products – I wanted others to be able to feel the joy and wonder of healing plants, and that happens when people can get first hand experience themselves. My classes continued to flourish, so I closed up my product line in 2012 and have been focused primarily on teaching and empowering others to live a healthier life with herbalism ever since.

I partner with my feral husband Matt Berry, in several of my wildcrafting endeavors, as well as enjoy a lot a field time with our sweet daughter, Amara (who is a skilled mushroom hunter, by the way). We are based in Nevada City where we live and explore the beautiful foothills of the Sierra Nevada. I teach most frequently in Nevada City, but also in other Northern California locations:

Speaker: Elisa Parker

Elisa Parker, media maven, speaker and a visionary for women and social justice is the co-founder, president & host of the award winning program, See Jane Do. Elisa’s work takes her around the world to discover and share the extraordinary stories & solutions in each of us. She hosts her weekly show for nationally acclaimed radio station KVMR & is the co-founder & director of the Passion into Action™ Women’s Conference, TEDxGrassValley, Raising Jane and the See Jane Do Media Lounge. Elisareaches thousands through partnership with other like-minded organizations and develops organizational-wide initiatives, communications strategies for events & digital media campaigns that support women’s leadership & gender equity. She designs, creates and facilitates training programs in hi-tech, media, healthcare & non-profit organizations to optimize performance outcomes. She is an alumna of the Women’s Media Center Progressive Women’s Voices program, Take the Lead Women & The White House Project’s Go Run program. Elisa holds a BA in Communications from San Francisco State and a MA in Organization Development & Leadership at University of San Francisco. Elisa lives in the Sierra Foothills with her husband and two daughters.

Speaker & Workshop Leader: Marlene Mahurin

Marlene Mahurin is the founder of Cyberstrong Kids and the co-founder of Time for the Talk. She has worked with hundreds of families, helping them open the lines of communication on embarrassing and difficult topics. She is a sought-after speaker for both internet safety and sex education. She is passionate about helping parents take an active role in preparing their children for the teen years. She holds a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential from Humboldt State University and a BA from UC, Santa Barbara. She lives in Grass Valley, CA with her husband and two daughters.

Speaker, Workshop Leader: Jeannine Glista

Jeannine Glista is an independent media producer with a special focus on social innovation projects. She’s best known as Co-Creator and Executive Producer of Biz Kid$, a national public TV series that teaches kids about money and business. Biz Kid$ is the recipient of two Daytime Emmy Awards (13 times nominated), an Environmental Media Award, a Silver Telly Award, two Parents’ Choice Awards, and more. Her latest project, The Urban Homesteader, aims to expand urban sustainability by showing how to turn a small urban space into a modern homestead. Jeannine brings over 20 years of production and project management experience in the fields of educational broadcasting, marketing and communications.